The bungalows at St Ita's in Portrane which have yet to be commissioned by the HSE. FROM?LEFT:?campaigners from St Joseph's association for the intellectually disabled, Sheila Phillips, Tommy McCormack, Ann Tierney and chairman Eamonn Tierney

A new €16.5 million state-of-the-art residential centre for intellectually disabled adults is likely to lie empty until the end of this year at the earliest, because the government is refusing to provide €2.7 million in funding which would allow it to open immediately.

Campaigners on behalf of users of St Joseph's intellectual disability services at St Ita's hospital in Portrane, in north county Dublin, have expressed their frustration at the effect of the delay on the 60 residents hoping to move there.

They claim there is a real risk the property will be vandalised, at a time when the government has pumped billions of euro into the banking sector. Service users are also asking why they cannot enter the new centre, which they pass by on a regular basis.

The 'Knockamann' development, comprising ten six-bedroom bungalows, was completed last year at a cost of €16.53 million. A spokeswoman for the HSE said 40 additional staff nurses are required to "commission" the bungalows. This would cost approximately €2.7 million a year and must be authorised by the Department of Health.

"An opening date cannot be agreed until approval is received to recruit the additional nurses. Nurses are not a derogated grade under the current moratorium on recruitment in the public services," she said. "The HSE has not received the sanction to recruit the 40 additional staff required…. It has submitted a business case to the Department of Health and Children for the additional nursing staff and, subject to receiving approval and a successful recruitment campaign, it is hoped to have the facility commissioned by the end of 2010."

But a spokesman for the health department said the request for additional staff would be considered as part of a wider "employment control framework" for 2010, which is now being finalised.

"It is expected that in 2010, (the framework) will again provide the HSE and the department with the ability to deal with critical exceptions to the moratorium once the overall reduction in health employment numbers, as agreed by government, are being met," the spokesman said.

Eamonn Tierney, chairman of St Joseph's association for the intellectually disabled, said it was now over 11 years since Brian Cowen, then minister for health, launched a new building project for residents in the service.

"It's just not on. This facility would give individuals the opportunity to reach their full potential and would also raise their self-esteem. At the moment they are wandering about a Victorian-era institution in many cases, with paint coming off the walls," he told the Sunday Tribune.

"I've been asked personally, when are we going to be able to move into our new homes? If you're living out there and looking at these fabulous new buildings, so close to where they are living most of their lives, it's soul destroying.

"It would seem to be a situation now where this whole project is been held up by just simple bureaucracy between the HSE and the Department of Health and Children on a question of staffing."